Project Orange, LOKI, AWW, Max Fordham, and Buckley Gray Yeoman are among the practices committed to creating connected and resilient places, which positively contribute to their neighbourhoods and allow equality of access.
Environmental engineers Max Fordham worked with architectural NGO Article 25 to expand Collège Hampaté Bâ in West Africa’s Niger to provide primary and secondary education for 1200 students. Using locally available materials and skills the team delivered a robust, simple building that uses passive design principles to mitigate the extreme heat (photo: Souleymane Ag Anara).
Creating a just space for people
Part 3 of the Regenerative Architecture Index is concerned with providing social connection, economic opportunity and wellbeing for all. Our design processes should foster a shared sense of stewardship where neighbourhoods can self-organise and build their resilience. This requires ethical, inclusive and participative approaches. Responses in this section were assessed by Architects Declare steering group members Mandy Franz, Michael Pawlyn, Tom Greenall, Alasdair Ben Dixon and Mark Goldthorpe, with expert input from Regenerative Architecture Index ambassador Immy Kaur – social and civil activist, businesswoman and co-founder and director of CIVIC SQUARE. Read more about Part 3 of the RAI here.
Projects Question 2
Do your projects create connected and resilient places which positively contribute to their neighbourhoods and allow equality of access? For example, do your projects create economic opportunity, retain value locally and generate social value?
Answers breakdown
Front-runner
Project Orange
The Moorings in Thamesmead created a new safe space for a diverse community. The club offers a range of quality services to support local people with issues including housing, jobs and training, immigration and money management.
A recent project for a local landowner in Suffolk was able to demonstrate that the scheme by a large housebuilder could be better designed to take account of the site. The vision for the disused farmstead created a sustainable community within an attractive agricultural setting connected to the nearby village, its geography and traditions. Our landscape-led approach embedded new homes with a light carbon footprint into an agricultural setting within the wider rural context.
Over in Somerleyton our Old Forge project repurposes the now empty garage into a community shop with fast car charging and cycle storage. At Rathbone Market in Canning Town, our affordable housing has allotments on the roof.
Project Orange’s Old Forge housing in Somerleyton, Suffolk, repurposes the now empty garage into a community shop with fast car charging and cycle storage. The decision to preserve the Oak tree informed the final layout. The use of local thatch and flint, along with green roofed carports, demonstrates a sensitive approach to new housing in this Victorian Model Village (CGI: Project Orange).
Runner-up
Sheppard Robson
We create egalitarian and community-driven spaces. For example, 245 Hammersmith Road integrates civic spaces including a public reception area, café, library, and workspaces for community use. The project delivered over £28 million in social value and won the ‘Social Innovation Award’ in 2021, demonstrating a novel and creative approach. At the University of York, the campus landscape is open to the public for walking, cycling, and summer festivals, while the student hubs – named after key LGBTQ+ icons – celebrate diversity and offer safe spaces and pastoral services for people from all backgrounds. For TTP’s new tech campus, we engaged extensively with the local community of Melbourn: the project funded improvements to a much- used underpass and the contractor SDC landscaped the local community hub. We worked with the client, who has operated in the area for over 35 years, to create a campus in harmony with its community.
Ones to watch
JTP
We have carried out post occupancy evaluation for Graylingwell, Chichester, a project where we engaged the community from the outset, developing a shared vision and helping secure the creation of the Chichester Community Development Trust (CCDT). We visited 10 years after initial occupation. Our study found it had developed into a thriving place to live with a wide range of opportunities for participating in community life. Delivering the shared vision has been the remit of the CCDT, a small, tight-knit organisation under strong leadership that has proved resourceful and resilient in overcoming challenges which have been greater than originally envisaged.
The place serves as an early exemplar of Zero Carbon development and the benefits of embedding environmental responsiveness. It also demonstrates the contribution the arts can make to a community’s quality of life and the value of involving residents and stakeholders in shaping the future direction of the community.
LOKI
For this I will refer to a project in Indonesia. : I know where every cent of the money for this project goes – to the local community. The houses celebrate local craftsmanship, and we sought to retain wood carvers, stone masons and sculptors especially to prop up a dying industry. There is a trend to white concrete buildings, and we stand to celebrate local identity and culture. Every person who is working on the site, from the labouring and ground work, to the construction, as well as the surrounding neighbourhood is well paid and working in positive working conditions. I know everyone in the community working on the site, and we have a beautiful time working on this project together. We have made several alterations to the project to accommodate the requests of the neighbours and to embrace some of the more sensitive and nuanced social and cultural trends. We aim to display what good architecture means in this community.
Buckley Gray Yeoman
We have demonstrated our drive to add opportunity and value in our own home, through the creation of the Shoreditch Arts Club. Prior to opening, we teamed up with a non-profit to provide a three-month workshop to upskill the local community to work in hospitality. We then opened the club as a space closely knitted with local artists, encouraging collaborations with the wider built environment.
At Eccleston Yards, the site was previously a derelict car park, but we activated this site with a focus on the pedestrian experience, which has brought in new footfall and a more diverse community. The project creates a new piece of public realm, adding to the urban grain. We took the yard to ‘blank canvas’ to allow the community to occupy it and generate their own sense of place. The space is actively curated, often with a range of activities, appealing to different audiences.
Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios
The practice’s founding principle is that the creation of architecture is a collaborative and social act, enriched and informed by the community and context surrounding where we practice. We choose to work on projects across sectors that can have a positive impact on local, economic and social value, with an emphasis on housing, arts and culture, education and regeneration.
We design places which support and promote active, social and sustainable lifestyles; buildings which protect biodiversity and increase connectivity with nature. Through inclusive and meaningful community consultation and collaboration we create spaces that inspire a feeling of ownership and leave a lasting positive legacy. We promote local growth through engagement with local consultants and manufacturers, sourcing local materials and products where possible.
Our early-stage work on Our Cultural Heart in Kirklees was designed to engage the community in cultural placemaking winning the GO Excellence in Public Procurement Awards Social Value award.
AWW
As part of our Social Value Quality Mark Silver, we uphold our pledge to promote social innovation and develop healthier, safer and more resilient communities. This includes the creation of economic opportunity and retention of value locally: we fully support the cities in which we live and work.
Our post-occupancy evaluation of one of our projects local to our Bristol office, The Park in Knowle West, Bristol, demonstrated that £4.5m of added social value impact was generated through the project lifecycle stages 1-7. Examples of where impact was made included over 100 hours of time spent working with local schools, and a measured 7.4% reduction in crime within one mile of the site.
Max Fordham
Working with Article 25, we expanded Collège Hampaté Bâ in West Africa’s Niger to provide primary and secondary education for 1200 students using locally available materials and skills. The robust, simple design helps mitigate the extreme heat by using passive design principles. We developed the design for water, sanitation and the electrical systems and also provided advice on passive environmental measures to inform the final build-up of the roofs. A new water tower is included in the masterplan and will guarantee that fresh water can reach the far extremes of the site.
We reduce fuel costs through Passivhaus social housing, such as the redevelopment of Agar Grove Estate in Camden, and design for energy and material efficiency. We also generate social value via related educational activities we do for clients on projects to help improve carbon literacy and provide practical ideas for a wider audience.
